Roger Pielke Jr.: Reality is Not Good Enough

The entire Heartland document episode has become far more interesting than a typical tale of an advocacy group paying off shills now that it seems clear that one of the documents that was leaked was in fact a fake.

The memo doesn’t add new facts, just new spin. Naturally, because the spin is more lurid, it’s what a lot of the climate blogs seized on.

If the faked document happened to be produced by a climate activist or scientist (as some are already suggesting), then the leaked Heartland documents will go down in history as one of the more spectacular own goals in the history of the climate debate (with the consequences proportional to the stature of the faker). The faking is likely to overshadow whatever legitimate questions may have been raised by the release of the documents. Imagine what would have happened if the UEA hacker/leaker had made up a few emails to spice up the dossier.

It will be interesting to see how this develops as it appears that the faker left plenty enough fingerprints to be revealed in due course. The collateral damage is likely to be significant among the media and the overeager blogosphere. Stay tuned.

Otter: Junior believes in his very soul, although he retains sufficient intelligence to know pious proclamations and inadequate energy supplies will not retain political and/or societal support for long. He claims the “debate” has long been won by “climate scientists” but that it is not important. That said he preaches “decarbonization” as though it had some intrinsic value. “Clean energy” is his Colorado enviro mantra.